


He is tired(And not just physically)

by Jc27



Series: Short LU stuff [6]
Category: Linked Universe - Fandom, LinkedUniverse - Fandom, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
Genre: Angst, Family, Hurt, Linked Universe, you know I love some Uli comforting her son
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-02
Updated: 2020-10-02
Packaged: 2021-03-07 20:35:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 916
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26763694
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jc27/pseuds/Jc27
Summary: She broke the mirror and he is all alone. In a home that doesn’t fit him anymore.
Relationships: Link & Uli (Legend of Zelda), Twilight & Uli
Series: Short LU stuff [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1456591
Comments: 2
Kudos: 42





	He is tired(And not just physically)

**Author's Note:**

> Woah my first fic in awhile. It’s been a rough week for me and I just kinda rambled on my notes app and now I’m posting.  
> Hope y’all enjoy. If you have any ideas about something I could write about next feel free to share!

He speaks to the Princess after the mirror breaks.

She thanks him for his work. She apologizes for not being able to stop Zant before he took her kingdom. She apologizes, even when it isn’t her fault, for not stopping her. For not somehow keeping the mirror whole.

He wants someone to be mad at. He wants Zelda to stop apologizing for things she couldn’t control.

He wants everything to go back to how they were.

He wants her to come back, please.

He knows the only people who deserve his anger are Zant and Ganon. He knows Zelda wishes she were stronger—not just a princess, but a queen. He knows even if everything went back to how it was, he would never be able to fit back in the role he had.

He knows she left to keep her people safe.

First and foremost she is the leader to her people. They are her responsibility and he knows she will keep them safe.

Who will keep her safe without him?

She can keep herself safe, she’s strong.

She shouldn’t have to.

In the end, he decides to return home. As he leaves, Zelda pushes the crystal, now tied so it could be worn, into his hands.

“She would want you to have it.”

He smiles. He doesn’t know much about this somber, serious princess.

What little he does know is this:

She had one friend growing up.

Her friend has just left to a world where they will never see each other again.

He knows she hurts too. That is why he says, “Thank you.”

Not as a knight, nor as a friend. Just two strangers who both have lost someone dear.

And so he returns home. It’s late, far past the time of twilight. Too early for the first rays of dawn. He walks Epona back home. Has it always been like this?

So...so different. It’s colder now. Emptier. It feels like there should be dust covering his home and belongings.

Not a speck of dirt.

It’s too much. Too cold, too dark, too quiet.

She used to speak to him when it was quiet. They weren’t always kind words. Most were meant to hurt him.

Why does he miss her if she hurt him?

He wanders around this town of his. It, like his house, is different.

Has it been affected by the twilight that badly, or is it him? Is he a broken piece in the machine that makes Ordon?

Hadn’t he always been?

Ever since he was young and stumbled into the forest battered and bloody. Ever since Rusl found him and bright him home. To Ordon.

He blinks. It hadn’t been a conscious choice to walk to Rusl’s home. It was a choice nonetheless and here he is staring at the door. The door of the man he sees as father.

The man who bandaged his bruises, telling lessons every chance he got.

The man who made him smile the first time he can remember.

The man who threatened to kill him while his hands had been paws and skin covered in fur.

He turns. It’s late, he should sleep.

His ears twitch at the sound of the door creaking open.

”Link?”

He freezes. His eyes don’t need to be on the person to know who they are. This voice is important to him too.

This voice belongs with the woman he could call mom.

He faces her, yet says nothing. What words could capture all that has happened? All the impossible feats. All the secrets in the comforting blanket of shadow. What could he say to make her understand?

Uli smiles softly, her eyes shine with how wet they are. She walks up to him and cradles his face in her hands. Her fingers graze over his ears. A part of him that screamed different. Her eyes study him and he cannot bear to hold her gaze. He eyes the ground instead.

“You seem tired.”

And it hits him that maybe, maybe she already does understand. Just a little. Just enough to see the weight of his eyelids aren’t just from lack of rest.

“You should be sleeping.” Is what he says instead.

She scoffs. A playful thing. “Why do that when I can be with you?”

There’s an echo of past conversations. Thousands of them. Of sleepless night spent watching the stars. He always tells her to sleep. She always tells him she’d rather be with him.

“I...I don’t think I am me anymore.” He pauses. “Everything is so different. My house feels like a shed skin that I’m trying to force myself back into.”

“As long as that heart of yours keeps beating, those eyes of yours keep shining, and that soul keep burning.” She starts. An old phrase from the village.

They recite the rest together, “You are you no matter how many skins you shed. Your being is still the same.”  
“And that is why I love you.” Uli says, pulling him down to kiss the crown of his head.  
“Thank you, mom.”

“Always, son.” She sends him back to his house. It still feels wrong, off in a way that he doesn’t ever think will be fixed. Except now the shadows are familiar. The room isn’t so cold. He smiles as he lays down in bed.  
He realizes then that he hasn’t slept well since before his journey.  
But his journey is over now.

He can rest

His eyes slide closed.

**Author's Note:**

> The next morning:  
> Twi, wakes up as a wolf in Wild’s world:for fucks sake!
> 
> Please leave a comment I always love reading them, even if I don’t tend to know what to respond with.


End file.
